Ream? or Swage?

[Jamie Jackson]

What's your preference for working rifle brass folks?

 

I load relatively large amounts of handgun rounds...10+ K/year..but have only sporadically load rifle rounds...a few hundred now and again.

 

Upon advice here on TGO I picked up a Little Crow WFT for trimming brass. It's a remarkable tool and makes short work of trimming my 5.56/.223 brass...amazingly short work of it!

 

The overwhelming majority of my 5.56/.223 brass is range pickup. I tend to find about 10% of it to have military type crimped primer pockets. In the past I've used a Lyman Case prep multitool.

 

Now that I have the Little Crow I was able to trim about 1500 pieces of brass in a few hours. I use an RCBS hand priming tool and load on an old Lee single stage press (that simply won't wear out) that I purchased back in 1986.

 

I've read several handloading specific forums in my research and it seems that it's about a 50/50 split on recommendations.

 

An acquaintance of mine that shoots long range rifle recommended simply taking the reaming bit, chucking it in a drill, and ream the pockets. It works great, is definitely fast. And the primers seem to fit easily and are snug.

 

 

But what are your thoughts on swaging vs reaming the primer pockets?

 

Any points I should consider?

 

edit: spelling...

Edited December 20, 2015 by prag

[frankmako]

i use the dillon ss-600 super swager.  many mango seasons ago i did the reaming by hand.  i trim my 5.56 brass using the possum hollow case trimmer.  i would use what you like the best.  the reason i changed was my hands gave out and the super swager is easy on the old body.

[CommsNBombs]

If you have a 650 I know people who run the GS Custom Swager or the SwageIt - granted you have to pull out your stock primer seating assembly, and it has a heavy spring but from what Ive seen it works very well if you have a dedicated trim die you can Resize, Deprime, Swage and Trim then swap toolheads and load without the additional torque that depriming puts on your brass

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[MP5_Rizzo]

Swage it. I used to ream but not any more. Reaming removes metal and less consistent. The best reason is You should get more milage out of your brass by sewageing.

[gregintenn]

A twist with a chamferinh/deburring tool works for me.

[enfield]

I don't know that it makes any measureable difference.

[leroy]

prag...

 

We used to shoot quite a bit of 308 thru a bolt gun, most all the reloads were military brass... As others have said, we've both hand reamed and swaged the primer pockets... I don't think it makes a big difference... What the swager (...we have a Dillon...) brings to the party is that it makes things easier on you... I never had any problems with brass done either way... We always sized, trimmed, and chamfered the cases, then we either reamed or swaged the primer pockets and cleaned them well... We used, just as you are doin, a hand priming tool to prime the brass, and loaded it on a single stage press...

 

leroy

[Jamie Jackson]

Thanks for all the good advice and insight folks. It's appreciated.

 

So far the reamer bit from the Lyman chucked on the drill is working OK. I reamed and primed 500 pieces last evening.

 

Leroy, I'd like to get a Dillon swager...but all of my "expendable cash" has gone into components recently...but it's on my wish list for sure.

 

As frankmako mentioned, it's getting rough on my aging and somewhat arthritic hands...getting old ain't for sissies LOL.

 

comms...I have a 550 and with Dillon's incredible customer service I'll probably not have a need to purchase another, at least that I can justify to the missus. :)

Dillon rebuilt it for me last year. I originally purchased it in '89. It's like a brand new press now. +1 to Dillon!

 

I've considered purchasing the head exchange setup and another powder measure for the Dillon as a quick-change to .223...but at this point, when my brass is completely prepped out, I can load 250 rounds/hour easily with my single stage Lee. So I'm pleased enough with that.

 

Heck handloading is a Zen thing for me anyway and helps focus my sometimes scattered brain. :pleased:

 

Thank you for the good advice my friends.